How to Get The Most Out of Your Micro-Influencer Relationships

We’ve talked before about how, in many cases, Micro-Influencers can be more effective for sales than their larger counterparts. Their combination of authenticity and accessibility to their audiences makes it more appealing for customers to try out a product they promote. Whether it’s out of genuine interest in your product or just a desire to support the influencer, it leads to opportunities to build brand awareness with specific audiences that you want to reach.

But Micro-Influencers have a completely different structure of communication than most Macro or Mega influencers. Larger influencers have a manager that fields their business inquiries that lets them communicate quickly; Micro-Influencers typically have a day job that takes up a lot of their time. As a result, they create content and answer emails in their time off. Larger influencers can take a contract you send, understand it, and sign off on it quickly. Micro-Influencers might need more hand-holding because of a lack of experience.

Those are just a couple of examples of how different the Micro-Influencer experience can be if your brand is used to working exclusively with bigger fish. But make no mistake, the smaller influencers can have massive payoffs with the right approach. Read on to learn more about some simple adjustments your brand can make to build better relationships with the smaller influencers out there.

Research Them Before Reaching Out

Micro-influencers are an amazing way to quickly get an “in” with smaller niche audiences that might love your product. But that can be a double-edged sword. That influencer might have opinions, inside jokes, or other memes with their followers about specific topics that would make them a bad fit for your brand. 

For example, say you’re a makeup brand and see an influencer whose aesthetic looks like a good fit for you. But that influencer could be against wearing noticeable makeup for a personal reason, whether for being natural and body-positive or just a personal dislike for being obvious about using it. Or if you’re a snack brand that specializes in healthy choices, trying to connect with an influencer who loves classic junk food is going to just waste both your time and theirs. 

Even if these examples and others agree to work with you, it can be damaging to their credibility and yours. The partnership can easily come off looking insincere and hurt any chance of getting sales. Some basic research into them as people and what they talk about on their platforms can go a long way toward avoiding scenarios like the ones above. 

Focus on Quality

When it comes to connecting with the audiences you want, it’s less about overall reach and more about actual engagement. Would you rather work with an influencer who posts your link on their bio to thousands of people, and then never talks about your product? Or would you choose an influencer who reaches one hundred people, but has actual back and forth conversations with their followers about your brand? The latter may not lead to immediate jaw-dropping sales numbers, but it’s a surefire way to grow your brand awareness.

When you communicate with possible influencers for your brand, try and get a feel for how much passion they have for sharing your product. Do they care enough to bring it up organically to their followers? Or will they fulfill a set number of times they specifically promote it? Finding an influencer that brings that extra bit of enthusiasm to the table can go a long way.

Plan for Growth

Micro-Influencers can get you the kind of sales results you’re looking for. But their audience size can bottleneck your capacity for steady growth. This can especially be a problem if your product or service is something that consumers only need to buy once, or don’t have a need to purchase often. Once their consistently loyal follower base has what they would want from your brand, what next?

One key strategy is to view your relationship with the influencer not just as a business decision. If the influencer has a positive experience working with you, you’ll get good word of mouth. They can and likely will talk to their peers about your brand. This can open up more opportunities to work with similar influencers. If you’re enjoying the results you’re getting with the current influencer, this can be a great way to expand the scope of your campaign and ensure similar results with similar influencers moving forward.

Communicate, and Meet Regularly

For best results, it’s a good idea to meet with your micro-influencers regularly and keep communication lines clear. That way, you can reiterate key messaging, and review goals to see if they’re on track. It’s also a good time to check on whether they’re delivering the kind of sales leads you expect. On the flip side, it also allows the influencer to ask questions, voice concerns, and be certain that they’re being heard in the process. 

These kinds of sessions are important, and key to the process working well. It can be a challenge keeping track of all your micro-influencers, especially on larger campaigns. But using a SaaS with built-in features to make communication simpler can make it much easier to manage.

Give Them Creative Freedom Where You Can

Even though you want to keep an eye on how they’re doing, try not to stifle them creatively. With their smaller niche audiences, your influencers know better how to shape your messaging into something that their followers will react positively to. You may initially agree on a direction to take, but they may come up with a better idea after meeting with you and want to run with it. Keeping the door open to creative changes can lead to a lot of positive results.

You discovered them and wanted to work with them for their own unique style and spin on their content. Trusting them to find a way to craft their own presentation with your key points mixed in is an important step toward achieving mutual success in the campaign. And if there is a key point you want tweaked, that’s where the communication comes back into play.

Create a Culture of Win-Win

Always keep in mind that your Micro-Influencer is risking their own credibility for you with their small, growing audience. Holding up your end of the agreement you make with them is critical to getting the most out of them. Always remember that their success is also your success.

If you’re clear on your expectations, and your influencers feel like they can voice concerns or run creative changes by you when inspiration strikes, then you’re on the right track. You’ve given the relationship what it needs to grow into a lucrative opportunity for both sides.

Sideqik Knows Influencers

Ready to discover Micro-Influencers that can boost your sales to the audiences that matter to your brand?

Sideqik’s platform allows your brand to not only source the influencers that match your brand’s standards but track their creator campaigns for your products through robust social commerce integrations. We offer an end-to-end suite of services for your influencer campaigns, including over 20+ million influencer profiles that appeal to hundreds of interests. From Micro-Influencers with intimate access to their audiences with niche interests to Mega-Influencers that are household names with unmatched reach, Sideqik has them all.

Interested in how Sideqik can help you elevate your brand with influencer campaigns and keep you ahead of changes like these? Contact us today for a free demo.